


Chujo the Silent

by orphan_account



Category: Giant Robo
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-23
Updated: 2012-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-16 20:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/543744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chief Chujo takes care of Professor Go when Go is injured by the sample Shizuma drive core.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chujo the Silent

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on two scenes in the anime; I've transcribed the dialogue, filled in the gap between them, and extended the medical wing scene.

"The anti-Shizuma field is coming!"

Chief Chujo Shizuo glanced at the researcher who had spoken before turning back to the sample drive Professor Go Gakujin was studying.  The professor's makeshift lab was set up at Ryozanpaku in a tent of all things, but Chujo knew they had to make do with what they had at the moment.

Go, however, didn't seem to mind the setting in the least.  He looked a bit strange in the white protective suit he was wearing over his usual robes-- especially since he carried around his fan even while working.  _It's like his security blanket,_ Chujo thought to himself with a smile.

Go happened to glance at the chief then.  The professor flushed faintly at Chujo's smile but returned it before he turned back to the sample.  Its green glow cast a faint reflection on the professor's pale face.  Go looked happy, Chujo decided, even amidst the all the chaos.  _He's always like that when he's working-- so absorbed and eager._

One of the other scientists called, "There's the first phenomenon of the anti-Shizuma field-- the compression of the Shizuma drive core!"  Go's smile had faded, but there was a look of satisfaction in his eyes as he studied the core, which had shrunk considerably.

"This is good," he breathed.  "Now we'll get the answers to all our questions.  And we'll find out if Professor Vogler is really still alive!  Now is the time for the truth to be revealed!"

Chujo-- the only one in the room not wearing the white coveralls-- looked at the sample as well through his dark glasses, waiting as they all were for its reaction.  But then a scuffle behind them made both Chujo and Go turn: one of the older researchers had abruptly fallen over.

 _What the hell?_ Chujo wondered.  "You there!" the chief called to the fallen researcher; Chujo loosened his own tie as he found it harder to breathe.  "Are you all right?"

Before he got an answer, Chujo felt as if someone had knocked his remaining breath right out of him.  He choked and grasped at his throat; a second later, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Go doing the same.

"I-I can't breathe!" the professor cried, bending over.  Chujo tried to reply, but he lacked enough oxygen to speak.  His head swam as he gasped for air and sank to his knees, unable to think of anything but his burning lungs.

"Commander!" Go called when he saw the chief fall, but before he could go to Chujo's aid, his smaller body was stricken with the same lack of oxygen.  Go's fan fell from his hand, and he turned back to the sample, trembling.  "C-can this be?" he cried as he stretched out a shaking hand towards it. 

Chujo managed to lift his head to look back at the sample.  There he saw the core no longer compressing, but instead _enlarging_ , swelling grotesquely.

"N-no. . . ." Go stammered as he reached out to it.  "This sample-- Professor Vogler-- he's--"

The core continued to swell until it filled the drive's whole tube, straining against its sides.  Go stared at the sample as if transfixed by its roiling red depths.  Still his hand moved toward it, despite the core's obvious readiness to break free of its confines.

 _It's going to explode!_ Chujo thought as he heaved for enough breath to call out, "Oh no, Professor Go!"  Chujo staggered to his feet despite his own suffering.  The chief stumbled toward Go and caught the professor's arms, but Go was as unyielding as if he had been frozen there.  At the last minute, Chujo pushed himself against Go's chest and threw the lighter man to the ground, shielding Go with his own broad shoulders as the sample exploded.

Chujo felt fragments of glass hit his back, but they bounced off harmlessly, unable to penetrate the fabric of his suit.  As the top of the tent was blown off, fresh air rushed in, bringing oxygen to replace the depleted atmosphere.  Chujo breathed in deeply, gasping a little, then he raised his head to look down at Go.  The professor's face was even paler than usual, his eyes were closed, and his lips were parted.

"Professor Go?"  Chujo shook him a little.  "Go?  _Go_!"  An ache of horror washed over Chujo as he clutched his friend's shoulders.  He pressed two fingers to the professor's neck and went numb with relief when he felt a pulse flicker beneath this fingertips.  Chujo sat up to give the unconscious Go room to breathe, although he kept his eyes on the younger man.  The other researchers were getting up as well, and one hurried over to check on the two of them.

"All of you are to retreat underground," Chujo ordered him in a voice so firm, it gave no sign of how shaken he was, "and bring what's left of that sample to the medical wing.  I'll be taking Professor Go there; he needs a doctor."

As the others hurried to obey, Chujo slid one arm beneath Go's shoulders and another under his knees.  The chief started to stand, then he noticed Go's fan lying on the floor a few feet away.  Chujo withdrew one arm from the professor and leaned over to pick up the fan, sticking it inside his suit jacket before scooping up Go once more.  He carried the professor underground-- not a difficult task considering how light Go was-- but paused outside the medical wing, where there was no one to see them.

Chujo looked down at Go's face, now no whiter than his normal paleness.  His face was still drawn with pain or effort, though, and his lips were parted as he struggled to breathe.  Chujo bent his head to brush his own lips against Go's cool forehead before he went on into the medical wing.

\--

The diagnosis of the IPO's head doctor was reassuring: Go was only suffering from smoke inhalation, and he should regain consciousness soon.  Although the doctor volunteered to keep watch over the professor, whose coveralls had been removed and who now lay comfortably in a bed in the medical wing, Chujo insisted on staying himself.  The doctor seemed a bit taken aback, but she was not one to argue with the chief; she left Chujo alone with the unconscious professor.

As soon as the doctor was gone, Chujo moved to crouch beside Go's bed, where he began untying the now-messy braids that held back the professor's hair.  It helped calm Chujo's nerves to unbraid each strand carefully, combing Go's hair out with his fingers.  _It's so soft,_ he marveled.  _And so black-- while here I am going grey._   He smiled drily to himself, but he didn't really like being reminded of the seventeen years between them.  Chujo pushed those thoughts away; what mattered now was Go's recovery.  The chief smoothed out the professor's hair before laying Go's head gently back on the pillow.

 _My dear professor,_ Chujo thought as he folded his hands and waited for Go to awaken.  _I wish I could tell you all I feel for you. . . but my feelings would only get in our way right now.  Believe me, I'll do everything in my power to protect you-- and that includes keeping my silence._

After perhaps fifteen minutes had passed, Go began to stir.  Chujo remained where he was, leaning back in his chair; he knew now that Go would recover, and Chujo could afford to be nonchalant.  Finally, Go's eyes opened as he drew in his breath sharply.

"Professor Go, are you all right?" Chujo asked, watching Go through his sunglasses.

Go sat up, looking around him in surprise.  "Where am I?"

"Relax," Chujo reassured him.  "We're underground in the medical wing.  It seems you inhaled a bit too much smoke."

"Right."  Go calmed down as his memory returned to him.  "It suddenly got hard to breathe and. . . ."  The professor broke off in a gasp as he noticed the broken Shizuma drive the researchers had placed at the foot of his bed.

"Yes," said Chujo, following the professor's gaze.  "Unfortunately, we lost both the sample and all the data.  But what bothers me is why it got hard to breathe just before the explosion--"  Chujo glanced up at Go and fell silent: the professor was now slumped over, his left hand over his face.  In spite of his earlier confidence, Chujo was a little worried.  "What's wrong?"

"How could I have overlooked such an important detail?" Go groaned.  His eyes were squeezed shut as he voiced the self-doubt to which Chujo had grown accustomed.

"Important?" prodded Chujo.

"Yes.  I remember!" Go murmured.   "There is another Professor Vogler who could have made that sample."

"What?" Chujo gasped, leaning forward in true agitation.  "Then Professor Vogler is. . . ."

"Yes."  Go finally lowered his hand only to reveal the tears that now tracked his face.  " _He_ died many years ago."

 _He's crying again. . . ._   Chujo usually dealt with Go's frequent tears by ignoring them.  Despite his affection for the young professor, Chujo wasn't much good at conveying sympathy, and he had long ago decided that he would only embarrass Go and himself if he fawned over Go when the professor wept.  Instead, Chujo always pretended that the tears didn't exist, instead pressing on to deal with whatever issue had caused them at that particular time.

The chief took the same tactic now.  "All right, so Vogler is dead.  But what's this about another Vogler?"

"I thought he had died too, but-- it's the only answer!"  Go dropped his hands in his lap and turned his tear-stained face and tired eyes to his chief.  "You knew that I was Vogler's assistant and that he had a daughter, of course-- but you also knew that he had a son, did you not?"

"Yes, but. . . ."  Chujo's eyes widened behind his glasses.  "But you told me he perished with Vogler!  Do you mean to say you think he survived where his father did not?  How is that possible?"

Go was silent for a moment, then he whispered, "I survived, and Ginrei survived.  Perhaps Emmanuel Vogler lived through the Tragedy the same way."

Chujo groaned softly, leaning back in his chair once more as he looked away from Go to think.  "So there we have the answer to at least one of our questions.  I don't know that it changes things though-- I'll have to think on it."

"Chief Chujo," Go said in a broken voice, "I'm sorry.  I was so stupid not to think of him before.  If I've set us back because of my mistakes--"

"Not now, Go!" Chujo snapped, waving his hand at the professor.  He didn't need the distraction of Go's self-recrimination when he had this new development to consider.

But then Go made a soft sound, one of fresh tears being choked back.  Chujo looked back at him in time to see the professor turn his face away and lie down on his right side, his back to the chief.  Go's narrow shoulders shook as he tried to hide his weeping.

"Go?  What. . . ."  Chujo trailed off before he finished the question, because he already knew the answer.  _I hurt his feelings._   Of course Go was being overly sensitive as usual, but this time Chujo couldn't ignore his tears.

"Professor Go."  When he got no response, Chujo stood and went over to the bed where he sat down beside Go, dropping a hand onto the professor's trembling shoulder.  "Go, I'm sorry.  This is just a shock to me, but if you should have understood it sooner, I should have too.  You're right, I did know about Emmanuel Vogler-- and I never even thought of him before now."

Go's trembling stilled under Chujo's hand, though he still did not turn back to his chief.

"No, it wasn't your responsibility to remember what I told you long ago, commander," Go murmured.  "I've burdened you with so much, that--"

"Nonsense."  Chujo squeezed Go's shoulder.  "And if you insist on calling yourself a burden, then you're one I'll gladly bear."  He reached out his other hand to Go's hip and tugged on it, coaxing him onto his back.  "Look at me, Go."

Go finally turned to look up at Chujo.  The tired lines under the professor's eyes, coupled with his wet face, made Chujo ache inside a little.

"I'm ordering you to stay here for another hour, at least," said Chujo.  "You need to rest.  After that, I want you to come to my station here underground so we can talk about what to do next-- and don't you try to come any sooner, either, because I won't see you!" he added with a chuckle.  "The doctor will call for me if you need me, but I want you here in bed until your breathing is normal, understand?"

"Yes sir."  Go managed a little smile.  "Th-thank you for looking after me.  I'll. . . I'll try to get some sleep."

"No trying!" Chujo teased, relieved beyond measure to see the smile.  "You _will_ sleep.  That's an order."  He pulled the bedclothes up around Go and leaned down to smooth out his pillow.  As he did so, Chujo caught the scent of Go's hair, captivating him into leaning still closer.

"Yes, chief," whispered Go.  Chujo could feel the professor's breath on his cheek, and it was almost more temptation than he could bear.  He contented himself with bringing a hand up to squeeze Go's shoulder again, reaching across the professor's narrow torso to do so.  To his surprise, Go raised his own arm and draped it across Chujo's back, hugging him weakly.

Chujo gave in and slid both arms around his friend, holding him close to his chest and stroking his long hair with one hand.  "Sleep well," Chujo whispered, "and get your strength back.  I need you, Go-- I can't do this without you!"  
  
"Ch-chujo!" Go stammered.  Chujo felt the professor's wet face press to his neck a moment before Go loosened his hold and lay back.  Chujo released Go and stood before he could be tempted any further.

"I'll see you in an hour," said the chief as he straightened his tie and jacket.

"Yes, commander."  Go returned the smile Chujo gave him and settled back against his pillows, letting his eyes drop closed.  Chujo watched him a moment before he quietly left the area, taking the broken Shizuma sample with him.

 _I shouldn't have let myself go like that,_ Chujo thought as he walked to his station, _letting his tears get to me this time!  But seeing him suffer-- there's only so much I can take._   Chujo didn't glance back at the curtained area where Go rested, but he felt as if he'd left his heart there.  The chief sighed heavily, looking down at the destroyed sample in his hands.

_Just as well.  It only gets in the way._

\--

The End


End file.
